See the Artful Lampshades that 15 Designers Created for Vaughan and Watts of Love

Sasha Bikoff, Michael S. Smith, and William McLure are among 15 designers who were selected to create lampshades for a great cause. Decorative lighting manufacturer Vaughan and nonprofit Watts of Love have joined forces in a campaign entitled Made in the Shade to aid impoverished families through the power of solar lighting.

“More than 1 billion people live without electricity,” says Nancy Economou, the founder of Watts for Love, which distributes solar lighting globally to people who don’t have access to light or reliable energy. “I’m so excited to see these designers taking a stand for women, children, and families around the world. The Made in the Shade campaign is the perfect way to spread the light and love for our mission.”

Lucy and Emma Vaughan’s lampshades. Photo: Georgina Viney Photography

Watts of Love brings hope to less fortunate individuals through solar lighting, showing the possibility of sustainable illumination for a better way of living. Vaughan has been in the business of decorative lighting, furnishings, and accessories since 1983, using the finest materials and maintaining an artistic sensibility with its pieces.

“It has been eye-opening to learn from Watts of Love, and we hope this is the start of many such ventures at Vaughan,” says Lucy Vaughan, the company’s cofounder. The beautiful lampshades are on display through November in local showrooms across the country and will be included in a silent auction, with proceeds directly benefitting Watts of Love. Also, for every social media posting that uses the activation hashtags #vaughanXwattsoflove and #madeintheshade, Vaughan will donate $1 to Watts of Love.

Here, we share a few standout designs featured in the campaign:

William McLure’s lampshade on the Zaragoza table lamp in Bronze. Photo: Armanko Photography

William McLure

“I chose a lamp that stylistically paired well with my interiors. I like the fact the base has a sculpture-like quality to it. I wanted the shade to complement the base and not fight with it. I chose a muted color palette with a washed background. The ink blots/shapes complement the base and have a similar form. This, I think, makes the shade and base work together as a whole and looks like they were made for each other.”

“When considering how we were going to contribute to Made in the Shade, we instantly knew it would be based on a Vaughan classic—a product that had been seen many times before but would now be presented in a different light. Enter Milas: one of our bestselling fabrics—an absolute favorite of Emma and mine—and gathered for the first time on our popular Pembroke shade design.”

Michael Smith with his lamp. Photo: Karola Sanchez

Michael Smith Inc.

“I was inspired by Vaughan’s beautifully hand-painted Japanese Arita blue-and-white Imari porcelain table lamp and decided to complement it with a custom-made, softly shirred shade in my Jasper Bangalore floral fabric. In vibrant, dramatic, eye-catching colors and imported from Switzerland, Bangalore is a screen-printed fabric that has a pleasing hand-finished, woodblock-printed quality. The pattern reflects a modern interpretation of the sacred “Tree of Life” archetype imagery symbolizing a magical fount of knowledge and enlightenment; the five intertwined beliefs of immortality and eternity; knowledge and wisdom; strength and protection; abundance and growth; forgiveness and salvation.”

“What we were trying to do was to come up with a lamp that would fit with anything ‘country to city,’ from a log cabin in Colorado (we actually used this fabric in a living room in a log cabin in Colorado) to a library in a New York City apartment. We chose a fabric from Howe in London because its tiny design works perfectly with the style of the lampshade we wanted. We love the red tape with it!”